The history of this small state called Delaware began in 1609 when Henry Hudson, in search of a northwest passage to the East Indies, sailed the Half Moon past what is now Cape Henlopen on Delaware Bay. Because the bay seemed too shallow for his vessel, he continued sailing up the Atlantic Coast. One year later another English captain, Samuel Argall, sailed north from the Virginia Colony into the bay. He named the point of land Cape La Warre, for Lord de la Warre, the governor of Virginia, and the name eventually came to be applied to the bay, the river, and the land along them. For the next few years Dutch captains explored the Delaware waters. The first land in the area was bought in 1630 by the Dutch West India Company, which allowed its patroons (owners of lands) to rule like great lords. The land was bought to establish a whaling colony. The next year the Zwaanendael colony was started by 28 Dutchmen who settled on Blommaert’s Kill (now Lewes). The settlement was soon wiped out by one of the neighboring Indian tribes.
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